Enrolment for the first selection session for admission to the Academy's Course for wig makers closes on April 28. To better accompany you in these last ten days of orientation, we offer you Lucia Mariotti's account, an all-round make-up artist and theatre hairdresser because she is a former student of both the Course for wig makers and the Course for hair and make-up artists.
Lucia, you have always been very sure about embarking on a training course at the Academy and in the theatre and performing arts environment. Can you tell us about the start of this adventure and how you came to discover and become interested in the Course for wig makers?
In 2014 I was 19 years old and had just graduated from high school in fashion and costume design at the Ferruccio Mengaroni State Art Institute in Pesaro. I was young but I already knew what my dream was: to work in theatre and entertainment by studying at the Academy of La Scala. I knew I wanted to do this, I always knew it even though I knew nothing about this world, but it was as if I could do nothing else but this. My plan B was a three-year degree in scenography, but it was an option that fortunately I never had to discover, because I was very determined to join the Academy.
Supported by family and friends, I jumped in and in September 2014, with great joy, I was initially selected for the Theatre Make-up Artists and Hairdressers Course at the Academy, thanks to which I had the opportunity to do the internship between the Carlo Felice Theatre in Genoa and the La Scala Theatre, where I saw wig-making for the first time. My teacher and boss at the time was Tiziana Libardo, head of the make-up and hair department at the Teatro alla Scala and artistic coordinator of the Make-up and Wig-making courses at the Academy. Tiziana taught me a lot, she made us try crochet and the basics of making a wig.
As soon as I finished the course in 2015, I was selected to work at La Scala Theatre, and at that moment I realised that in order to be a complete professionist I needed to attend the Course for wig makers, which I started in 2015. The course was one week per month, which allowed me to work and in the meantime go to the Academy; it was tiring but it served me well. I remember when I finished my first wig, we had a month to do it, it was a satisfaction. How much I have grown since then!
Can you tell us about your internship experience?
My internship experience was in 2016 at Laboratorio Paglialunga in Rome, one of the most prestigious institutions in the show business. From here I realised that that of a wig-maker is not an easy job; the goal at Paglialunga was to make works of art, not just wigs.
Do you have a particularly vivid memory of your study period?
My fondest memory is graduation day, of both courses; it was nice to see me and my classmates smiling with each other and with the professors, and to end this intense and satisfying journey together. After two years of courses, the Academy had become home for me.
And after the Academy? Where did you work and where do you work now?
When I finished the Academy, I worked another yeat at La Scala, divided between evening shows and the workshop where we did beards, fronts, moustaches, etc. In 2018 I went back to Paglialunga in Rome to the laboratory where I worked for three and a half years and where I honed my skills. We worked for many movies, both international and Italian, with Oscar-winning hairdressers.
Since 2021, having gained my experience, I started shooting as a hairdresser and make-up artist again, and the skill of being able to fix wigs was important at many times, both in terms of quick problem solving and because I was able to be a flexible resource.
Combining all three: hairdresser, make-up artist and wig-maker combined with touring and always meeting new people is really great.
I also worked for the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, the Teatro Comunale di Ferrara, the Teatro Comunale di Modena, the Teatro di Roma, the Arena di Verona and many others. This season I worked for the Piccolo Teatro in Milan as make-up artist and hairdresser for 'M Il figlio del secolo' and 'Romeo and Juliet', for the tour of 'Samusà' with Virginia Raffaele and for the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris for the Broadway musical '42nd Street'.
In your opinion, what characteristics do you need to be able to do this job in 2023? Together with this question, we would like to conclude with a good luck message for all boys and girls thinking of sending in their applications for the next edition of the Course for wig makers.
If there is one characteristic you have to have to do the wig-maker's job, besides passion and the patience of having to sit and concentrate for many hours, I think it is an open mind. I discovered at the Academy, and then during my work experiences, that you really have to be a sponge, absorb and look at the world around you and be creative. Many times when you make a wig you only have as a reference a static image, which you have to bring to life, make it three-dimensional, and that's where you true self comes out.
To the girls and boys who want to enrol, I wish that they are always hungry to learn something, and if this hunger never goes away, then you will be on the right track!
